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Three of seven projects are online companies
By Marilyn Miller
Beacon Journal business writer
Published on Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
Area colleges are trying to find a way to keep some of the brightest and most creative students in Northeast Ohio.
Thirty-five students, including five from the University of Akron, recently spent a week at an entrepreneurial boot camp at Cleveland State University.
The camp was made possible by a $50,000 grant from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation.
During the week, each of seven groups had to create a business venture, develop a mini-feasibility study on the creation and then capitalize on it by getting the venture up and running. The boot camp was open to students in all majors.
The UA student group designed a Web site called I Can't Dress.com to help people coordinate outfits and match colors.
John Ridley, 20, of Aurora, a junior at UA, said the idea came when he had to seek help from his girlfriend on what casual business outfits to pack for boot camp.
''A lot of guys have problems coordinating their clothes,'' he said. ''You can wear the same pants twice, but you need a different shirt for each day because you'll see the same people every day in a close environment. But what if you could control all that?''
The UA group talked to several clothing stores and came up with a virtual reality closet.
Ridley said he felt the UA students had an advantage at boot camp because they included a finance person and software programmer. Also, Ridley owns a software company, SoftGroup Interactive, which specializes in interactive media design, including Web site design and flash animation.
He said the Internet has become such a staple in college students' lives that it wasn't surprising that three out of the seven projects at boot camp were online companies.
''Globalization is here,'' Ridley said. ''Whether it's good or bad, it's here to stay, and we're in it.''
The other UA students in the group were Gary Williams of Akron, Michael Modon of Bath Township, Nick Vesley of Canton and Michael Tokarz of Smoot, W.Va., president of UA's Students in Free Enterprise chapter.
''This is about innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship exactly what the region needs. To my knowledge, something of this magnitude has never been done before,'' said Todd Finkle of UA's Fitzgerald Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies. ''Our goal is to develop entrepreneurs who will remain in the region after graduation.''
Finkle, who applied for the grant, said the project is an investment because the economic future of the Northeast will be shaped by students like these.
''We are planting the seeds to stimulate entrepreneurship within existing businesses and create new businesses, jobs and wealth for the area,'' Finkle said. ''Right now we are focusing on undergraduates in their junior and senior year, but hopefully we will also extend the program to graduate students.''
The program, which was held in late August, was hosted by the Entrepreneur Education Consortium (EEC), a group of seven Northeast Ohio universities and colleges with entrepreneurship programs.
Other schools involved were Baldwin-Wallace College and Ashland, Case Western Reserve, Cleveland State, John Carroll and Kent State universities.
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or 800-777-7232 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.
Area colleges are trying to find a way to keep some of the brightest and most creative students in Northeast Ohio.
Get the full article here.
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